Who do you think you are?

Saw the show on SBS for the first time last week, and it inspired me to look in some old books my mumsie gave me on our NZ history ages ago.

I've heard fasinating stuff from people about their descendents - it's strange how we inherit traits, idiocyncraticies, passions and skills from people way back when.

Its like the jigsaw puzzle pieces are slowly coming together for me atm. I now know why I'm a bit snappy! 

Im planning my future travels to visit these places I've only just found out about.

Who knows? We may be distantly related to each other, or can help each other out with links or info on family trees. 

So... who do you think you are?

I know that I'm German which means I have slaughtering Jews in my blood.

*beats chest with pride*
*smashes pick axe through skinny jews skull*

Germania here we come mutha fuckers.

I've got blonde hair and blue eyes. Can I answer the call to exterminate Jews too? I hate their miserly ways!

Have always considered myself Australian/Welsh....Through and through Ginger Turtle

My mother's British and my father was born here... however my sister told me somewhere on my father's side there's Eastern European blood. Pretty fucking vague.

My personality is definitely from my Mum's side of the family, but I look more like my Dad's side.

I'd love to find out more! I know someone on my Dad's side was working on a family tree...

I'm going to sign up at ancestry.com.au for the free 14 day trial I think!

Make your way to the breeding zone at once my mighty Arian god. Will try and find a nordic babe to help service you as soon as possible.

My grandpa was Polish I think .. but with a last name like mine I always thought I was more German then anything.

Really should learn more about my ancestors.

"some kinda superstar!"

 

Goosestepping towards the joy division...

I thought I was the last in the line of Kurko's until my grandfather died and we found out he had family across the globe he had corresponded with but kept secret from his wife and kids for his lifetime.

That seems like a bit of a cunty thing to do.     Do you know if there was any particular reason for this?

My dad's doing his side of the family tree at the moment. Found out my great great great granny is called Sarah and she owned a pub. Also one of my great great grandfathers murdered his wife!

Get into it!!!

I have his diary here, its from 1808 to 1876 or some shit! Real old school!

Holy crap!

my mum has done loads of research on my family tree but to be honest i do not really care where my family came from. i dont speak to 99% of one side of my family and the other side i only speak to immediate family ie: grand parents + one aunty and uncle. as far as i am concerned i am from australia. i've been told i should visit some little town in scotland while i am over here to find out where i came from, but it will probably be some shit little village and ill be bored after being there for 2 minutes, so i dont see the point really.

i'm sure that if there was anyone famous or psycho or even remotely interesing in my family tree then my mum would have told me during her research. she has folders and folders of the stuff.

i too have a murderer in my fam, also a direct descendent of a maori war priest - so look out! 

khem - youre not going to scotland at all? im going there to check it out (my great nan was a famous singer from glasgow), you might be suprised by your experience there...

i'm with khem to be honest. i have no interest in my father's side, and my mother's isn't much more interesting either.

i know i'm distantly related to painter joseph turner, which the turner prize is named after. but that's about it.

i went to melbourne to see his gallery a few years ago, but that's as far as my interest goes.

Aussie for at least 4 generations on both sides...

*eats lamb*

 Me 3. It's not really interesting to me, anything further back than my grandparents are strangers. I would rather learn about interesting historical events and people.
 
 AFAIK I am at least 4 generations Aussie on both sides.

 Think it's why I love cricket so much tbh *eats vegemite sandwich*

 

yup me 4 then

*eats lamb AND vegimite sandwich*


 

Yeah me too. My grandma did find out a lot about one branch of the family tree, but really there are so many other branches that the few we know about are pretty meaningless.

I'm just boring Australian as far as I know

My great great great great grandfather was a Scottish dragoon who got sent to Pt Arthur for going awol one too many times. He married another convict who was an Irish woman who was sent there for stealing a roll of material. The were there for seven years and then were released and moved to the mainland.... blablabla.....

we are all convicts 

I'm a mongorel

makes for good genes

till last week i was just me, but now im just not sure. get called rob frost long enough and ya turn into rookie.
eeeep

[for the record]

I am not Cale

for the record

rookie doesnt think hes me, but he doesnt know this personality exists yet. kinda like fight club
ive been up to some filthy shit while ya thought u were asleep
might wanna get tested 

I wasn't interested until I saw this show.

I've got absolutely no idea about my father at all - don't know his name or anything at all about him (although I suspect he was a jedi turned to the darkside). Would really like to find out about him and his family just in case I end up in love with my sister or something. And if he's rich that cunt owes me and mum 16 years of child support back pay.

As for my mum's side, there's her mums family who were all wealthy landowners but sold their land to the crown for some reason (fucking idiots) and her dad who as far as I know was one of the few people who voted for the communist party in 1950, and I think both sides run back to the convicts (Australian Royalty as Jack Thompson screamed when he found out he was related to some convict)

But I'm going to find out more about it this year if I can.

good luck with that Julian! keep us posted 

your mumsie doesnt know his name? or taboo topic?

can you get back pay for child support? hmmm... my dad owes me squillions! nah, his side i ignore - british, colonial, aristocratic barstards who came down on the first buffalo. prob rolling around in their graves right about now 

alot of rural townships have an historical archivist with official and unoffical documents available and if ya start digging youll hit a lead to follow in know time.
expecially if they were well known in the area. being wealthy i would assume their names will be splashed around a bit

good luck

Yeah my dads side has been in the same area for about 4 generations so its pretty easy to find out about us.

Same thing with my mums side. Just head to the local library and there is more than you will ever need to know.

Aussie through and through!

Dude you seriously need to look into some South Australian history. We are not convicts

Exactly. My family came over here very early on and they were Germans (well, Prussians to be precise) escaping religious persecution.

No convicts in my family.

No idea about my heritage. Not that I really care. My Dad is a bastard (in the meaning of the word) who never knew who his father was, his Mum died when he was young and he was raised in foster care. I don't give a fuck about my family beyond those I've met. I don't give a fuck where I come from, only where I am going. That's not bitter, by the way. I really just don't care. I'd rather do other things with my time then try and chase down long-lost relatives. Having said that, if I had a murderer or something in my ancestral past than I would be interested. If one thing can catch my attention, it's the chance to investigate the darkest recesses of the human soul.

What did they do to have to escape religious persecution?

My dutch pa was part of the french resistance WWII and travelled all around Europe doing special sabotage missions. Which is kinda cool but he never spoke about it alot as I think it kinda fucked him up a little. He received an award from the Queen of Orange for the work he did.

He was a part of Street Trials and helped make Judgements were done after WWII and I think he saw some pretty freaky executions of people who were Nazi collaborators. My Dad has told me a lil bit of this and a lil bit of that passed down but the family pretty much left Rotterdam when he was 16 as it was bombed the hell out.


My mum has Irish and Italian background

i guess that explains it   ahaha

i'm curious to find out more, but i'm also very lazy and will probably never actually do it.

my dad was born in wales, his dad was welsh, and his mum was english... apparently my great great grandpa donated a heap of land to the city of swansea, so all the men owens can get a freemanship of swansea... not that it does anything!!  pisses me off tho that i can't get it, but whoever i marry can... *shakes fist*

my mum was born here, so was her mum & dad, but they stem back from some sort of english royalty back in the day..

maybe for the edinburgh comedy festival, but not to follow up on where my great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-great-grand parents  lived

A quick cut and paste from Wikipedia.

"The very earliest Lutherans came to Australia under August Kavel in 1839, to escape religious persecution in Prussia under King Frederick William III, as a result of the Prussian Union. Later immigrants show much more diversity, which resulted in many splits and the formation of many small Lutheran synods throughout Australia."

My family came on the first ship from Germany out here.

You should go and find out more there would be immigration logs on who came out on the ship.

I find that stuff interesting

I know all about it. My family have done a fair bit since arriving in Aus so it was drummed into us at various reunions, holidays and what nots throughout the years.

Just can't be fucked writing about it all here.

fairy nuff

I guess they probably settled in Klemzig then (if they were in Adelaide).

The Germans in Klemzig were the first to brew beer in the state and had decent crops and self sufficiency well before the English.

Efficient Germans.

germans did a lot to shape our culture during colonialisation, a fair bit of prussian history in the last ep of who do you think you are... interesting.

so Erika - do you have the rebellious, fighting spirit for the underdogs etc? my best mate is dutch aussie and told me a fair bit about the dutch/french resistance - fasinating stuff!!

when you go to holland (if you havent been) you'll notice that no one has curtains up in the windows, so you drive around at night and see peeps in their underwear, lying on the couch eating croquettes etc  apparently this is due to the german occupation, whereby the soldiers can have everyone under surveilance.

*Gasp*

My Grandpa was Jewish, your family has probably slaughtered my family 

I would seriously love to live in Hahndorf it is one of my favourite places in the world.


Yes I do have a head strong kinda attitude to life. Im very honest and up front. Sometimes this is not a good thing as I sometimes speak before I think. The dutch are very stubborn too. I like to think I'm not but not too sure what others would think about that. LOL. Im generally a pretty patient person too until someone well and truely fucks me off then kapow! Thats it! My bark is not bigger than my bite.

i try to stand up for people, as long as they deserve it.

 

I dont think many people on AM have experienced that part of me yet. 

I get my irrational crazy wacko personality bit from my mums woggy side I think.  people on AM have experienced that. 


I LOVE croquettes... yummmo! Dutch food is seriously the best. Very bad for you though LOL

haha in regards to the windows with no curtains, yes that seems about right. The dutch have no shame

My best mate is of Dutch heritage, his Dad has the best accent! Their accent combined with their abruptness can make people think they are cunty, but I reckon Dutch people are very nice people in their nature though. Like you said, Erika, about the bark and the *nite*?!? 

 

the dutch are 'proud' of their looks and their country - So they should!! im going to enter a fraudulent marriage with an EU passport holder and hang out there for a bit - although my dutch ex proposed.... ahhhh... sounds like youre as stubborn - nothing, NOTHING (god willing) came between my study plans @ the time.

mmmm dutch white widow, chased by croquette and ham & cheese souffles (cant spell that one, pronounced 'su-flays')  

One of the many reasons that I plan to go to the Kindgom of the Netherlands is that I want to pick up the accent and retain it forever.

 

whoops

modified   

it tickles, and sounds like babies giggling


imo lol

really? i think their accent is funny as, depending on the person though - my ex's was hot hot hot...

go get him, or has that boat truly sailed?

nah, had to let him go = he has anger issues.

u did the right thing then. 
plenty more fish and all that

I dont have a strong urge to look into my family tree but I do know there are a lot of people who share my family name. Transliteration of Chinese family names into English depend on where you com from (ie: Hong Kong have a different way to phonetically spell Chinese words compared to Mainland China, same with Taiwan) so for the 周 family, you have Chow, Zhou, Chou, Chau, Chiao depending on where you come from. My family name also extends to Korea, as their surnames come from China originally.

Shouldnt be to hard then drifty, the Chow should narrow it down a bit.

Kurko = my name

Kurka = chicken

i reckon we was chicken farmers

my grandmothers name is very similar to the Ukranian word for onion, so i reckon they were big into that

another is close to the word for Tongue.

Zimmerman, the last name in the puzzle, is a full on Austrian name.

I am told by my Grandmother (who is a Genealogist) that this is the likely scenario.

Irish: The surname O' Coileáin, meaning from the 'whelp' i.e. young animal or from cuileann, Holly or Hazel, sacred celtic tree

The earliest documented evidence of the name in England dates back as far as the twelfth and thirteenth centuries where several instances have been recorded. One Colinus de Andresia appears in the pipe rolls of Berkshire in 1191, while a Colinus is mentioned in Hartopp's Register of the Freeman of Leicester recorded in 1196. In Ireland, Collins may be regarded as a genuinely indigenous Irish name; in fact, it is one the most numerous surnames, ranked number 30.

County Cork is my origins. Hope to get the Coat of Arms tattooed on me when I head to Ireland next.

Maybe they were Prussians as well and lived in what is now Poland? My Grandmother on the German side and her whole family lived in Prussia and all but one member of the family left (read: fled the Russians at the end of WW2) to head to what was left of Germany. I've had the story told to me by my Grandma before - pretty daunting stuff.

My Mum is German and is the only person to have migrated from her side of the family out of Germany. My Dad is Aussie with SA and Victorian parents.

I have excellent contact to my whole family on both sides - in fact that is the main reason I am in Germany right now. Kind of handy because if I need a place to crash anywhere in Germany or in most south east Australian cities I don't have anything to worry about. 

A few of my German family have been back to parts of Prussia with the older generation who originally came from there in the past decade, and hopefully in the next few years I'll get a chance to visit the area as well.

Well my dad is Italian from Naples hence the surname Iaccarino, and my mum's surname is a Bulluss, my pa's nick name was Bull which is pretty cool cos my nick name is Yak, as you can see I come from a long line of bovine like animals woo yea!  No idea of the history of each of them but somewhere down the family tree line the Bulluss or Bond side Bond being mum's mum's side)side come from Prussia which doesn't exist anymore.

What is it with people who have some Prussian background and drum and bass in Adelaide?

I have no idea what ur talkin about.  But I think it has something to do with Germans and the BV 

Are there lots of people on this forum from the BV? I didn't know that if that's the case... :/

Well the majority of first settlers to South Australia were from Selisia and Prussia fleeing persecution as they were Lutheran. The majority of the Barossa is from this region and I would say a reasonable section of S.A would also be.

I think you mean the majority of German speaking settlers or settlers to what is now the BV area...

What I was wondering is if and why so many people from BV are into D&B - ie. Are people from BV represented highly on this forum now?

It is probably a lot less now than it was but back at it's peak there would be a serious number of people from the BV down for most of the shows. All seemed to end up back at a certain address in Walkerville too for the after party.

A certain address ey? Sounds suspicious IMO

Well I'm not from the BV, my Grandpa was born there tho.

I just found this about my last name...

The derivation of the name Shapleigh is a matter of conjecture. The association of Shapleighs with the moors which fill the high center of Devon (England) is fascinating. There are today a half dozen names referring to Shapleigh or to places of families associated with the Shapleighs; there are scattered remains of modest stone houses and villages of the meanest sort.

In the distant past names were taken and derived from the local origin -- from the names of towns, cities, and landed estates. Many variations of the same name are evident. It should be remembered that few, if any, of the early inhabitants were able to write their own name -- all records and instruments being written by scribes who wrote names as phonetically pronounced. One finds, in fact, in the same parish register names written as if referring to different individuals when they really meant the same person.

Thus we find Shapleigh, Shapley, Shipley, de Shapels, de la Shapele, Chapelle, and finally Scapelie (as written in Domesday Book).

Is the name Shapleigh Anglo-Saxon? Or is it Norman? A good case may be made for either one.

 The "Mayors" of the borough of Totnes (England) are listed on a wall of the Guild Hall -- and to this date are still there. Among those listed as serving are "Shapwicks" and "Shapleighs." One Devon record included a John "Shappelegh at Breton Manor in Exminster. Other records include: Shyppeley, Sheeley, Shipleye and Shipley.

german/french on one side, the french were heugeonauts (sp?) fleeing persecution in the then, catholic france...settled in the caribbean, then grew rice in louisiana, proper creole stylee! did the covered wagon thing to nevada and made a fortune in silver mining. dunno how the german side ended up in california, but i had a great uncle hans and everyone (even my grandpa) still spoke german! great uncle hans was a snow-patrol spy in the second world war, he was captured by the germans but said he was a double agent (in german, haha) and was let go.

my dad's side of the story is way funny, and kinda gross! my pop was the first of 7 boys, he never learnt to read or write cause he had to work from an early age to support his brothes. his dad had the surname brown, he went off to the war and was killed in belgium, (and even was awarded a cross or purple heart or something) but they were divorced before then anyways. my great-nan, iva, then had a couple of kids out of wedlock, and then HOOKED UP WITH HER FIRST COUSIN, poppy petts.  apparently he was a proper nice old chap, but iva was pretty fiery. they were bush baptists, so apparently it wasnt too weird! they had about 5 kids, so yeah, GROSS INCEST styles! lucky my pop had a diff dad!! the family on both sides (both the brown, and the petts) come from england, i think iva was first generation aussie, from wales. and the petts name is pretty well-known, they were ship builders in southern england. there is even a Petts Wood and a coat of arms (bought, they werent nobility). anyways, if i meet someone with the Petts surname in Oz, then they HAVE to be a cousin cause the family is ginormous.

It makes me cringe when I go home to where my Dad is from, and my aunt points out family members or introduces us...They are all SHORT, ROUND and redheaded!!!!! or drunkards. go the family heritage!!!! like someone pointed out here, thank fuck for being a mongrel! genetic diversity ftw!